Word: icbms
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When the early missiles were planned, it hardly seemed worthwhile to try for very long ranges. And so the most glamorous missile, the 5,000 mile ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile), got a low priority. An early contract with Convair was canceled, and work would have stopped entirely if Convair had not continued with its own money. Emphasis was put on defensive missiles-the ground-to-air Nike and the air-to-air Falcon-and on short-range offensive missiles for use near enemy lines...
This was a breakthrough. It changed all the equations of scientific war, and it forced on the Department of Defense a grave decision: to concentrate intensively on the ICBM. No longer did the intercontinental ballistic missile need to hit a one-mile "pickle barrel" to be effective. A T-N (thermonuclear) warhead in the megaton range (equivalent to millions of tons of TNT) would blot out a large city even if it exploded well outside the city's limits, and its radioactive fallout would have a killing effect a long way downwind. So the ICBM, besides being fairly small...
Guidance Problem. For advanced missiles, guidance is a more serious problem than propulsion. Two guiding systems are of obvious value for an ICBM, and both are being developed. One, under contracts with American Bosch Arma, AC Spark Plug and M.I.T., is "inertial guidance." Its heart is a subtle instrument that senses every force that acts on the flying missile, the enormous force of the rocket thrust and the delicate forces of crosswinds and yawing motions. This information goes to a computer (contracts with Burroughs and Sperry Rand) that figures out the missile's position, speed and direction...
...designers of the ICBM believe that re-entry is their worst problem. The missile must not burn up, as most natural meteors do, and it must not lose its shape. Its thermonuclear warhead must not be exploded prematurely, and it must not be so damaged that it will not explode...